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ANNE BOLEYN’S LAST SECRET

Saturday, August 5, 2023

In today’s newsletter, we discover who preserved the secret of an executed English queen, steer clear of toxic worms coming to our backyards, and seek a future of hope for the Tree of Life synagogue. Plus, can you spot these camouflaged creatures?

Ultraviolet light reveals writing invisible to the naked eye in the margins of Anne Boleyn’s Book of Hours. The doomed queen’s prayer book disappeared after her execution in 1536 and reappeared around 1903.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY HEVER CASTLE & GARDENS

To the naked eye, the margins of a doomed English queen’s prayer book looked blank.

A modern detective, using ultraviolet light (above), unlocked the secret of Anne Boleyn’s scribbled book—and of its mysterious disappearance after her execution.

It also revealed a chain of women who kept the book hidden for centuries. What was in the book? How did they hide it?

A QUEEN’S SECRET

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Anne Boleyn, shown here in a late 16th-century painting by an unknown artist, was the second wife of Henry VIII and executed on false charges of adultery and incest in May 1536.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ALEXANDER, GETTY IMAGES

She was framed: Anne Boleyn, shown here in a late 16th-century painting by an unknown artist, was the second wife of Henry VIII and executed on false charges of adultery and incest in May 1536. Read the full story here.

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

Heart attacks, or myocardial infarctions, occur when the blood supply to the heart is partially or completely blocked. This angiogram shows the death of part of the heart muscle after a heart attack. Young adults are increasingly at risk for heart disease—but it's not always taken seriously.

PHOTOGRAPH BY SCIENCE SOURCE

Heart attacks are rising in young people. Here's what to know. (Above, an angiogram showing the death of part of the heart muscle after a heart attack)

Iceland to Harvard: Give us our skulls back.

Addicted to diet soda? Its low-calorie secret weapon may be linked to cancer.

Twins can become ‘unidentical’—and more fascinating twin facts

Today, it’s a massive volcano on Mars—but it may have once been an island

Can you spot these hidden animals?

You (and almost everyone you know) owe your life to this man

These toxic worms are probably coming to a backyard near you

Who broke the Sphinx’s nose?

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

An athlete sweating. Humans cool their bodies through the evaporation of sweat. Although this technique works well for the dry African savannas where humans evolved, it’s much less effective in humid climates.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ATSUSHI TAKETAZU, THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/AP IMAGES

Feeling hot, hot, hot: High temperatures affect the body in different ways (above, sweat on the shoulder of an athlete), from heat exhaustion to heat strokes, which can be fatal. And it doesn’t take long for heat to injure the body. Here’s what to look for, and what to do to keep yourself safe, as temperatures continue to rise.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

This isn’t an alien landscape—it’s an extreme close-up of the topside of a horseshoe crab’s abdomen. The gills are on the underside, and the dashes and indentations mark where they attach to the exoskeleton. The dark points beneath are minute spines that may function as whiskers do on a cat.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURENT BALLESTA

What am I looking at? This isn’t an alien landscape—it’s an extreme close-up of the abdomen of what creature? Hint: It’s been scuttling along the ocean floor relatively unchanged for some 450 million years.

A. Starfish
B. Horseshoe crab
C. Shrimp
D. Trilobite

CLICK FOR THE ANSWER

ONE GREAT STORY

In this 2021 image, Rachel Dinkin Rosen, whose father was the former executive director of the synagogue, and Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who managed to dodge bullets during the attack, greet each other.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON

Justice—and beyond: A mass killer was given the death sentence this week in the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Members of the Pittsburgh synagogue complex targeted in the 2018 massacre (two of them pictured above) are seeking not only closure—but a future of hope, as Nat Geo reports.

A STORY OF HOPE

Today’s soundtrack: Charlie, Last Name Wilson, Charlie Wilson

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Hannah Farrow, Nancy San Martín, and Jen Tse. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Alisher Egamov, Rita Spinks, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Thanks for reading!

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